FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: October 20, 2014
CONTACT:
NSJP Media Committee: nsjp.media@gmail.com
Nation’s largest student labor organization to announce endorsement of National Students for Justice in Palestine and Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Movement this weekend at NSJP’s fourth annual conference
October 24-26, 2014, Tufts University, Boston, MA — For the first time, United Students Against Sweatshops will participate in the National Students for Justice in Palestine conference, an annual convention where students participate in political development workshops, meet fellow organizers and learn from other social justice movements.
This weekend, USAS will announce their endorsement of NSJP, the BDS movement and the Palestinian struggle for equality and self-determination more broadly. On the heels of the latest attack on Gaza, USAS drafted a statement in support of the Palestinian people at their summer convention, stating: “As student labor supporters from across the United States, we work to build a world where people in all communities, schools, and countries are free from the oppressive forces that suppress humanity and creativity in all people. We believe that we have an obligation to be engaged with the social issues of our time, and we will not turn a blind eye to the injustices that have been committed against the Palestinian people.”
With chapters on over 150 campuses, USAS is the nation’s largest student labor organization. During the NSJP conference this weekend, representatives from USAS are meeting with NSJP Steering Committee members and hosting a workshop, sharing their years of expertise and experience with other student organizers. USAS’s partnership with National Students for Justice in Palestine reflects the visions of collective liberation and intersectionality espoused by each of these student organizations.
NSJP is honored to collaborate with USAS, and hopes to carry the tradition of developing relationships and campaigns based on principled politics and mutual solidarity. In 2012, national MEChA, the largest Chicano student organization in the U.S., endorsed the BDS movement, and a delegation from NSJP’s Steering Committee was invited to participate in their 2013 conference. NSJP has also worked in partnership with Anakbayan, the national democratic organization of Filipino Youth and Students. Earlier this month, representatives from NSJP participated in the Palestine contingent in Ferguson after releasing a statement in support of ending racism and inequality in Ferguson and beyond.
At the conference this weekend, workshops will cover a range of social justice issues, from environmental justice in Hawaii to exploring the ways in which Palestinian liberation is a feminist and queer issue. Grassroots cross-movement building of this sort has reverberated across the country, where SJP chapters have partnered with a broad range of student organizations on campus, united in their work towards a more just and equal world.
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National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is a grassroots network composed of students and recent graduates which provides resources and support to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters on university campuses and the U.S. movement for Palestinian rights and self-determination.
